The benefit of wooden decks is well known in the art. The material is plentiful, cheap, and durable. Wooden decks are built in extreme weather areas, such as the coast, due to the cheapness and strength of the wood. Extreme weather conditions of coastal areas cause wooden handrails and decks to deteriorate at a rapid rate. Thus, both residential and business owners of wooden decking are forced to renovate their wooden decks sooner and more frequently than residents and businesses of other environments.
One solution to this problem is to construct decks with composite or plastic planks which are either solid or cored. These products eliminate the problems of long term care of wooden decks; however, the cost may be 2 to 3 times the cost of wood. Due to this solution's higher cost, many residents and commercial owners choose to construct wooden decks due to the cheapness and inherent strength of wood. Thus, the solution of composite or plastic planks fails to meet all of the needs of residential and commercial consumers. It would be highly desirous, to have a lower cost alternative to such plastic planks. One such solution would be a protective deck handrail cover constructed of a plastic material that could cover existing wood deck handrails from extreme weather elements.
Several proposed solutions have been provided in the prior art and will be described below. Even though these solutions may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address; however, they differ from the present invention.
A protective wooden handrail cover is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,390 (the '390 patent) to Oliveri, et al. issued on Aug. 18, 1998 entitled “Structural Covering,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. This handrail cover comprises a flat top portion to cover the top of the handrail and two flat side portions fitted perpendicularly to either edge of the flat top portion to thereby cover the sides of the handrail. This cover was innovative for its time, but the design is rigid and the handrail cover fails to “snap-on” for stability and ease of installation.
A protective wooden handrail cover is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,187 (the '187 patent) to St. Marie, et al. issued on Jul. 5, 1994 and entitled “Cover for a Rail of a Fence”, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. The cover disclosed in this patent possesses a curved top for aesthetic purposes, two flat side portions fitted perpendicularly to either edge of the curved top portion, and two flange portions perpendicular to each flat side portion. Unfortunately, this design can only be used on wooden planks prior to deck construction, as the cover must “slide” onto the plank. Thus, this design cannot be used on existing wooden decks. Even though the curved top of this design is aesthetically pleasing, for coastal and humid regions, mold may grow under the curved portion and increase the rate of deterioration of the wooden planks.
Finally, a recent attempt to design a deck plank cover is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,441,378 (the '378 patent) to Wood, published Oct. 28, 2008 and entitled “Deck Plank Cover”, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The cover has the same basic structure as the '390 patent, but adds inwardly angled side portions and wood engaging fillets to adhere to the deck planks without the need for screws, nails, or adhesives. This design is innovative in that the deck plank cover may “snap-on” for ease of installation. However, this design fails to take into consideration the common method of constructing wooden deck handrails, and thus the “engaging fillets” would fail to engage a wooden handrail properly. Also, the design fails to take into consideration the extreme heat and sun the plastic cover itself would endure in coastal and other extreme weather environments.
Thus there is a need for a protective deck handrail cover that can be applied over the handrail of a new or existing wooden deck thereby giving the benefits of a plastic or composite deck, for fraction of the cost.